 |
Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d'Herbois
b. 19 Jun 1749, Paris, France
d. 8 Jun 1796, Cayenne, French Guiana [1] |
| Title: |
Président de la Convention nationale (President of the National Convention) |
| Term: |
13 Jun 1793 - 27 Jun 1793 |
| Chronology: |
13 Jun 1793,
elected, assumed the chair immediately upon the proclamation of election, session of the National Convention, salle des Machines, Palais national des Tuileries, Paris [2] |
|
27 Jun 1793,
ceased to exercise the functions of office upon the election of a successor [3] |
| Term: |
19 Jul 1794 - 3 Aug 1794 |
| Chronology: |
19 Jul 1794,
elected, session of the National Convention, salle des Machines, Palais national des Tuileries, Paris [4] |
|
20 Jul 1794,
assumed the chair, session of the National Convention, salle des Machines, Palais national des Tuileries, Paris [5] |
|
3 Aug 1794,
ceased to exercise the functions of office upon the election of a successor [6] |
| Biography: |
| Son of a Parisian goldsmith; educated by the Oratorians; at the age of eighteen, joined the traveling theatres; wrote more than twenty plays; became manager of the theatrical troupes; director of a theatre at Lyon (1786); at the outbreak of the Revolution returned to Paris, where employed actor's skills for organizing revolutionary celebrations; joined the Jacobin Club in Paris (1790); acquired great popularity with the publication of L'Almanach du Père Gérard, a book advocating constitutional monarchy (1791); was a member of the Commune of Paris and actively participated in the insurrection of 10 Aug 1792; elected to the Convention nationale (National Convention) (1792-1795) as a deputy for Paris; took seat with the extreme left Montagnards; demanded abolition of kingship at the meeting of the Convention (21 Sep 1792); voted for the death sentence in the trial of King Louis XVI; as a representative of the Convention (9 Mar 1793 - 30 Apr 1793), sent to the départements Nièvre and Loiret to oversee the levy of 300,000 soldiers; vigorously supported the expulsion and proscription of the Girondins; served as President of the National Convention (13 Jun 1793 - 27 Jun 1793, 19 Jul 1794 - 3 Aug 1794); was elected a member of the Comité de salut public (Committee of Public Safety) (6 Sep 1793 - 1 Sep 1794) along with his friend, Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne; went on a mission as the representative of the Convention (30 Oct 1793 - 18 Dec 1793) to Lyon (renamed Ville-Affranchie), where mercilessly suppressed a counterrevolutionary revolt; survived an assassination attempt (23 May 1794); presided the Convention during the coup of 9 Thermidor, Year II (27 Jul 1794); resigned the membership in the Committee of Public Safety (1 Sep 1794); was accused of complicity with Maximilien Robespierre and condemned to exile (1 Apr 1795) at the same time as Billaud-Varenne, Bertrand Barère and Marc Vadier; sent to the Isle of Oléron and then to French Guiana, where died of yellow fever. |
| Biographical sources: Dictionnaire des Conventionnels, 145-149;
Dictionnaire des parlementaires français 1789-1889, 2:155-156; "Curiosités révolutionnaires. Billaud-Varenne, membre du comité de Salut public. Mémoires inédits et correspondance accompagnés de Notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot-d'Herbois", ed. by Alfred Bégis (Paris: Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue, 1893) (web site). |
| Elections: |
| Candidate |
Votes (13 Jun 1793) |
| Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d'Herbois |
157 |
| Charles-Antoine Chasset |
n/a |
| voters |
241 |
| Candidate |
Votes (19 Jul 1794) |
| Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d'Herbois |
absolute majority |
|
| Source of electoral results: Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 66:508;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 13:278;
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 93:323;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 42:26.
|
| |
| [1] |
A detailed summary of sickness and death of Collot at the military hospital of Cayenne on 8 Jun 1796 (and not on 8 Jan 1796 at Sinnamary) is found in Curiosités révolutionnaires. Billaud-Varenne, membre du comité de Salut public, op. cit., pp. 90-93. |
| [2] |
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 66:508;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 13:278. |
| [3] |
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 67:603;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 14:373. |
| [4] |
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 93:323;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 42:26. |
| [5] |
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 93:325. |
| [6] |
Archives parlementaires - Série 1, 94:124;
Procès-verbal de la Convention nationale, 43:12. |
|
Image: portrait by Jean-Louis Laneuville. |
